A group of students from Rockledge High School in Brevard County briefly walked out of class Friday to show their support for the Second Amendment.

About 75 students, according to a head count by school administrators, walked onto the school’s track carrying the American flag and signs that said “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” and “I support the right to bear arms.” The event lasted about 20 minutes and then students returned to class.

Deaton — who was wearing a T-shirt that read, “my rights don’t end where your feelings begin” — said the event was meant to clear misconceptions about the Second Amendment, not support or oppose any particular political stances.

Who could have imagined that the Chinese Government would fund their student groups here and provide helpful tips on what to think and how to act

When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Washington on Sept. 24, 2015 on a state visit, hundreds of Chinese students lined the streets for hours, carrying banners and flags to welcome him. It was a remarkable display of seemingly spontaneous patriotism.
Except it wasn’t entirely spontaneous. The Chinese Embassy paid students to attend and helped organize the event. Working with Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSAs) at local universities — a Chinese student organization with branches at dozens of schools around the country — government officials from the office of educational affairs at the Chinese Embassy in Washington collected the contact information of about 700 students who had signed up to attend. Embassy officials communicated with students via WeChat, a Chinese messaging app, during the event and into the night, responding to messages as late as 3 a.m.

…FP found that CSSAs regularly accept funds from their local consulates and many officially describe themselves as under the “guidance” or “leadership” of the embassy. Internal correspondence reviewed by FP also show that consular officials communicate regularly with CSSAs, dividing the groups by region and assigning each region to an embassy contact who is responsible for relaying safety information — and the occasional political directive — to chapter presidents. A few CSSAs explicitly vet their members along ideological lines, excluding those whose views do not align with Communist Party core interests.

“Why I don’t give a shit about POTUS tweeting Kim…or any dictator for that matter.”

Last day or so my feed exploded with folks incensed over the God Emperor “not understanding foreign policy” to the level of inane utterances like, “How can you be making jokes? We could all die!” Either of these statements rather ironically point to the outright ignorance and/or purposeful expunging of intellect on foreign policy by those very people proclaiming the “Trump dumb” trope.

First, let’s address the strategic realities, as they impact the political realities:

North Korea (aka Norks), armed with Soviet armaments and tanks, waited for the US to start removing it’s troops on the Korean Peninsula, and for the South Koreans (Republic of Korea, aka ROK) to lose US monetary support and receive only low level arms support, surreptitiously blitzkrieging into the South in the end of June, 1950. Why is this important? Because it establishes who the aggressor is, then and now.

The current strategic reality in the intervening time, just shy of 70 years, is that the Norks have reinforced the 38th parallel in terms of hardened artillery emplacements, with mobile batteries being the norm further North. Conservative estimates right now put 400k rounds of artillery on civilian and military targets in the opening hour. There is absolutely no question that the Norks will target civilians, as they already have in prior engagements, to include open terror incidents. In those seventy years, the militarization of the border has increased at an ever more rapid pace, North of the border. US troops, on the other hand, have largely dropped in that time. Why is this important? Because it establishes that the US has continually backed off its footprint on the peninsula, to ever increasing Northern buildup, purposely pointed at threatening ROK civilian population centers (now with the advent of ICBM tech within the nation, US civilian population centers). It also establishes that more time has dramatically expanded the capabilities of the regime, regardless of political and economic embargo. Currently Nork capability to launch a nuclear assault against the US is limited and unlikely to be precision capable, but with their rapidly expanding capabilities, time is not an ally.

The political reality:

The Norks have been reliable in one thing alone and that is not abiding by agreements. A multitude of agreements from disarming, to ceasing research of weapons of mass destruction (chemical, nuclear, biological, etc.), have continually been broken. In every instance the Norks have leveraged a “we’ll do/finish this, unless you give X” to the tune of billions in foreign aid over a multitude of administrations. The Norks have continually been in violation of exporting conventional arms, missile technology, or even WMD tech to third parties, state or non-state. Nork uranium hexafluoride was shipped to Libya via Pakistan, in turn Syrian nuclear reactor tech was almost entirely Nork, for a few examples. In 2009 a shipment of chemical warfare suits bound for Syria were interdicted. Why does this matter? A tyrant regime that purposely targets civilians, and have literally bombed civilian airplane flights, is not going to hold back on giving a WMD to a third party group for a buck if it is at all possible.

The executive reality, the interplay between heads of State, is a different matter. The Kim family, for seventy years, has successfully neutered the US’ Teddy-like stance of “speak quietly and carry a big stick” on that particular stage. The US, under the onus of an appeal to emotion fallacy, continuously paraded, has allowed the Kims to repeatedly break agreements and expand their military capability. Why is this important? The Kims have pursued nuclear weapons specifically to continue a heritage of using threat over civilian populations in return for more money, which is then dumped into their military industrial complex. For the first time, we have a President that is outright saying the behavior is enough and threatening a response in kind. This has observably caught the Kim Jong-un government off footing, as they’ve had 70 years of threat with effectively no response from a US executive. This is easily observable with their threat to attack Guam, then President Trump’s rebuttal of “all options on the table” netting a tacking back in Nork threats on the international stage, with none of the planned test launch towards Guam or nuclear fire anywhere in the US.

The short of it is that propaganda out of the Norks is an everyday thing for the last seventy years. What’s changed is we’ve allowed them ample time to gain more ability to threaten civilians all over the globe. Now, we have a bunch of facebook pseudo-foreign policy types, most with no semblance of field experience, chiming in that we should //allow the Norks more time// while ceding them the stage to do so, thereby encouraging other similar regimes to action. Sounds like a solid plan!

I have family and friends spread throughout Westpac, and while I’m not in a hurry to have a fight that’s not necessary, there are some fights that don’t get better with time. Seventy years of pleading and playing politely has gotten us nowhere; it’s beyond time for a change in tack. That’s why I don’t give a shit about our President bluntly telling a tyrant that time might have granted him a toothpick, but we’ll respond in kind with a baseball bat; it has shown results before. Even if a conflict did break out, now is better than later. Allowing the Norks to hit the level where MAD theory actually applies is exactly what we will get under the argument of “be nice, maybe things will change.” The Cold War will look quaint by comparison.

…‘We have a big challenge now to integrate those with permission to stay in Norway to make sure they respect Norwegian values,’ she says. ‘Freedom to speak, to write, to believe or not to believe in a god, how to raise your children.’ Also, she says, what not to do. For example: ‘It is not allowed to beat your children in Norway.’…

…The Norwegian model, she says, is very different and very clear. “If you are an economic migrant, you are declined in Norway,” she says. “We send people back to Afghanistan if they are not in need of protection; we send them back to Somalia if they are not in need of protection.” Isn’t this a rather expensive process? “Yes, but it’s well worth it.” Police are also sent out to areas where illegal immigrants are suspected of living and working. “If we find them, we send them out. That has also decreased crime in Norway, that’s very good.”

I ask Listhaug if she is getting used to being called cruel and heartless. How does it make her feel?

The student body at Berkeley has a lot on their plate these days what with the imminent arrival of Ben Shapiro sending everyone scrambling for their safe spaces and all. But with so much to be done on the social justice front there’s simply no rest for the weary.

In case you hadn’t heard, there are offensively named buildings to be tackled on campus. We must wipe away all vestiges of racism or colonialism or… something. With that in mind, the students are looking to change the name of Barrows Hall. That one clearly has to go because of the evil, sordid history of the man it was named after. (The College Fix)

click through to see who they want to rename the building after.

Nothing surprises me any more, but at least they are showing their true colors.

French police hunting the driver of a car that rammed into soldiers near their barracks outside Paris have been involved in a motorway shootout, it was reported today.

Police were scrambling to track down the vehicle, which took off after the incident described by local mayor Patrick Balkany as “without a doubt a deliberate act”.
And now they’ve arrested the fellow after a “shoot-out.” Thought they couldn’t have guns?

Officials said the arrest was violent and that police opened fire on the suspect, who was wounded in the gunfire.

As ALWAYS in these instances, we will find he is a disaffected Presbyterian named Yves Montande, who is upset about his fleur de sel encrusted goat cheese business going under and now having to work four days instead of three.

I kid.

He’s probably of North African/middle Eastern origin and from Belgium, or has LOTS of friends with apartments there.

…in West Virginia tonight ~ big, bloody slabs slapped across the counter time after time, again and again. His (hard) working class audience ate that up and so, frankly, did we sitting on the couch in Pensacola. It was NOTHING if not a celebration of PRIDE in this beat-to-snot country of ours, a booming expression of optimism for the future (Not HOPE, mind you, but a full throated roar of WE ARE AMERICA AND NOBODY DOES IT BETTER). Plus a big middle finger to every Russian obsessed Dem, Repub and media type who are still scraping along “looking for a crime,” as Krauthammer puts it.

Those people (and the thousands outside the arena who couldn’t make it in) were fired up and so was Trump. It wasn’t oratory. It was plain speaking.

And it wasn’t long before our betters in the media were explaining how pathetic those souls are and then carefully wiping their glasses after scribing meticulously wrought condescension of the most elite sort.

*sniff*

Stu Rothenberg’s tale of being burdened by a coal mining father-in-law was so carefully structured, I felt it incumbent upon me to help him flesh it out. You know – say what he was YEARNING to say, if only his sense of delicacy wasn’t so strong, his innate sense of his societal place and its responsibilities to the lower orders so refined after years of practice that free expression is prohibited.

Don’t worry your pretty creases, Stu. I got your back.

I have the unique ability to transcend class barriers and am not ashamed to assist when needed in translation.

But I don’t think this conversation hurts Trump with your average American voter at all. Finally an American president is WORRIED about who might be coming in, in a deal made by a president who could give a shit?

…“I hate taking these people,” Trump said later in the 24-minute conversation. “I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people.”

Turnbull attempted to appeal to Trump’s experience as a businessman.

“There is nothing more important in business or politics than a deal is a deal,” Turnbull told Trump. “You can certainly say that it was not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it.”

Trump said that he was concerned that one of the refugees would “become the Boston bomber in five years.”

“I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made,” Trump added. “As far as I am concerned, that is enough, Malcolm. I have had it.”

I don’t see the problem.

But they need to hunt down whoever leaked these like Gollum looking for his Precious. Let’s see what Gen Kelly can do.

I dunno, what? We’ve heard EVERY FRICKIN’ EXCUSE in the world from her repeatedly, ad nauseum, since two days after Election Night, when her hangover/drug induced stupor finally wore off.
Now we get to buy the print version?

The military is about the collective, not accommodation. It is about YOU meeting the military’s needs, not the military meeting yours. Service is not a “right,” it is a privilege. Flat feet will keep you out as well, and would require no extensive surgery, no time lost for counselling or drug therapies, nor a lifetime of government funded aftercare, yet the flat foot lobby is ignored. There are no courses designed for “Clinical Care: the Flat Footed”, like the course I’ve included below related to transgender care. The strawmen about “what about blacks/women when THEY weren’t welcome” is precisely that. No surgical intervention required, no counselling, no time lost to the unit because black or female. Even the pregnancy canard falls to the wayside. Once that baby is birthed? Back to work. And no VA care commitment for the rest of the mother’s life. All this for an elective surgery. And it IS “elective,” a CHOICE. There are no gaping fissures, no sucking chest wounds involved, no burst appendix that needs immediate attending to. Choice.

You have to choose this surgery. That new life. Conceivably someone could come in surreptiously specifically for the surgery and, once in and on their way into the “process”, between counselling, therapies, recuperative time, etc., they might never spend a day of a four-year enlistment doing anything, ANYTHING they trained for, or in support of their unit. They certainly wouldn’t be deployable. And after that gift of $130,000+ surgery, all expense paid transition, for which they basically contributed nothing to the collective, they go out the door to the civilian world with lifetime medical from the VA paying for all their hormones and consequent related medical needs. Why? Because they had the surgery while on active duty.

Someone on another thread said “but it’s only tiny percentage of DoD budget” which worked out to however many tens of millions. I remember having to count actual gallons of fuel going into tactical aircraft at the end of the fiscal year because we ran out of MONEY. Those umpteefrats millions MATTER, believe me. When you have Congress talking about pulling one BAH from MARRIED active duty couples because MONEY, those “penny in the budget” millions MATTER. And I’m sorry. Your “elective” life choice shouldn’t impact readiness or another service person’s life in any negative fashion at all. God knows it’s hard enough now.

Of course there are the few exceptional individuals who can do it. Who aren’t the drag: like someday there will be a female who makes it through the REAL Combat Officer’s Course (not a standards lowered one). But that doesn’t speak to the larger entity, to the collective that HAS to be maintained. And that one-off changes nothing, truthfully. It can’t. You have to carry your load most all the time. And not make anyone else’s heavier because you are needy (You also have to be prepared for unvarnished truth from your fellows if you do slack, and people want their feelings protected these days, deserved or otherwise). Don’t quote SEALs at me who are now “female” and squawk at the president, when she was a HE when all the heroics went down and would never BE a SEAL were she a “she” originally. It’s now just his opinion. He’s no moral authority as a transgender because he did none of it AS a she. Glad you were on the Bin Laden raid, dude. Did you do it in drag and on hormones? No? Then STFU.

My sweet little brother couldn’t join the military because of diabetes, the other because of vertebrae crunching. I feel for them because those things are BEYOND their control and, yet, they are disqualifiers. IT’S NOT FAIR, right? Why should something that is one’s totally elective, entirely individual choice be any less disqualifying, when it is so patently a disruptive, counterproductive, expense-luxury-we-can’t-afford choice in regards to the military?

“Fair” is in the eye of the beholder and has never had anything to do with military service. That’s why it works.

The morning tally for the carnage is 22 dead ~ mostly little girls of giggly, go-to-girlie-concerts-in-tutus age ~ and 119 wounded from a “sophisticated” IED (“made by an expert”) packed with nails, detonated by someone “known to authorities.”

Oh, yeah ~ the Death Cult has come out claiming responsibility and doing their ghoulish victory lap.

ISIS have claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing at a packed Manchester pop concert which killed 22 people, including children, and injured 120 others.

The terror group said ‘one of the caliphate’s soldiers placed bombs among the crowds’ at the Ariana Grande concert last night, in the most deadly terror attack Britain has seen since the 7/7 bombings.

Traumatised families have told how of nuts and bolts tore into young music fans when the blast was detonated in the foyer area of the Manchester Arena moments after a concert by the US popstar ended.

Police this morning confirmed that the suicide bomber, who was known to authorities, died inside the arena. US security sources said the bomber had travelled to the venue on public transport.

A 23-year-old man was arrested by anti-terror officers in the south of the city as police and security services attempt to work out if the suicide bomber was part of a cell. Security sources have told MailOnline that initial analysis of the ‘sophisticated’ device suggests it was made by an expert.

Anybody tired of this shit YET?

The Independent paper in England is already saying the best way to beat the terrorists is to “carry on exactly as before,” which is what the English’ve done death after death after death. Well, besides worry that all the carnage caused by the monsters in their midst will somehow upset, intimidate and frighten the communities in their midst which birth, harbor and nurture such monsters. The first priority besides bandages, flowers, candles and sidewalk shrines has been these cloistered, coddled communities’ feelings, not foaming, unmitigated outrage at the death caused by them. Do you see that changing? We have been weeping and “carrying on” since Miss Emily of It Comes In Pints said “England! FUCK YEAH!” after the tube bombings in 2005. TWO THOUSAND FIVE!!!

And bollocks has changed for the British in England.

I asked last night and will keep asking, even though the answer sickens me. Is there no lion left in the English soul?